As shown in FIG. 1, an air conditioner of a vehicle is provided with an air conditioning case 1 in which a blower (not shown) is provided at an entrance thereof, and an evaporator E and a heater core H which are provided in the case 1. The evaporator E is connected to an air cooling system, and the heater core H is connected to an air heating system. That is, when the air cooling system is operated, the air sent by the blower is cooled through the evaporator E and then discharged to the inertial of the vehicle, thereby performing an air cooling operation. Further, when the air heating system is operated, the air cooling system is stopped and the air sent by the blower is cooled through the heater core H and then discharged to the inertial of the vehicle, thereby performing an air heating operation.
And as shown in FIG. 1, in order to control air flow, temperature, a direction of the air flow and so force in the interior of the vehicle, there is provided a plurality of doors, for example, an air intake door (not shown) for selectively determining suction of indoor/outdoor air to the blower (not shown) and the air conditioning case 1, a temp door 5 for determining an air volume passing through the heater core H and an air volume bypassing the heater core H, and mode doors 2d, 3d and 4d for determining face, defrost, floor, mix modes and so on. The doors 2d, 3d and 4d controls an opening angle of a defrost vent 2, a face vent 3 and a floor vent, thereby switching the above modes.
The above mentioned doors may be controlled manually. That is, the doors can be operated by switching a corresponding switch which is connected to a cable, a lever mechanism and so on.
Further, in case of a high-class vehicle, as shown in FIG. 2, a door actuator 7 which is driven by an output signal of a control unit is provided at an outer surface of the air conditioning case 1 so as to be directly connected to a rotational shaft of each of the doors or connected through the lever mechanism. Thus, the doors can be automatically controlled.
The door actuator 7 controls one or a plurality of doors through a door operating device 10. FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example of the door operating device 10 for controlling two doors. A first arm 40 and a second arm 50 as rotating members are connected with a link member 50. Of course, the rotating members are connected with the link member 60 may function as a lever for controlling an opening/closing angle of each door according to an operating status of the doors.
In Korean U.M. Laid-Open No. 1998-045709 and Japanese U.M. Laid-Open No. 1993-76818, there are disclosed connecting methods between the link member 60 and the arm. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a conventional door operating device 10 includes a first arm 40 which is coupled with a door shaft 21 of a first door 20 and also formed with a pivot 41; a link member 60 of which one end is connected with one end of the first arm 40 and the other end is connected with a second arm 30; and a cam plate 70 having a slot 71 in which the pivot 41 is movably inserted. The can plate 70 is coupled with an output shaft of the door actuator 7. And a reference numeral 50 indicates the second arm which is coupled with a door shaft 31 of the second door 30 and also connected with the other end of the link member 60.
According to the conventional door operating device 10 as described above, the cam plate 70 is rotated by the door operating device 10, and the first door 40 is also rotated along with the first arm 40 by the pivot 41 according to the rotation of the cam plate 70. And the second door 30 is rotated by the link member 60 connected with the first arm 40 according to the rotation of the first arm 40.
FIG. 4 shows a connecting status between the rotating member and the link member of the conventional door operating device. Herein, the rotating member will be described briefly.
FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example in which the first arm and the second arm are directly connected with the link member, wherein the arm is defined as a part which is directly connected with the door shaft so as to generate the rotating movement for opening and closing the door. A reference numeral 80 of FIG. 4 is a lever 80. If it is required that the arms are interlocked to be operated with a different angle, respectively, it may be designed to interlock the arms and the link member along with other parts therebetween. The lever is the part for connecting the arms and the link. In other words, the arm is the part which is directly connected to the door shaft, and the lever is the part which is interposed between the arm and the link member when the arms are not directly connected with the link member. Therefore, the link member 60 may be connected with the arm or the lever 80.
Herein, the part which is directly connected to the end of the link member 60 is commonly called the rotating member. That is, in FIGS. 2 and 3, the first arm and the second arm are the rotating members, and the lever 80 in FIG. 4 also functions as the rotating member. Of course, the shape of each of the first and second arms and the lever in FIGS. 2 to 4 is just an example, and it may be changed according to a design of the door operation. The lever 80 in FIG. 4 has a pivot 81 which is inserted into the slot 71 of the cam plate 70 of FIGS. 2 and 3.
In the conventional door operating device 10, since the rotating member (the first arm 40 of FIGS. 2 and 3, and the lever 80 of FIG. 4) is assembled to the cam plate 70 by using the pivot (the reference numeral 41 of FIGS. 2 and 3, and 81 of FIG. 4), the rotating member should has a separate hole for coupling the pivot and the link member 60. Therefore, there is a problem that the rotating member has a complicated structure.
In addition, when the link member 60 is coupled to the rotating member, since a link holder 61 is provided at both ends of the link member 60 so as to prevent the end of the link member 60 from being separated, a separate member is also added. Therefore, there is another problem that assembling processes and parts are increased and thus a fabricating coast is increased.
Further, if the link holder 61 is used as described above, since the link holder 61 is inserted into the rotating member together with the end of the link member 60, it is apprehended that a gap is formed by action of the link member 60, whereby the door is erroneously operated.